When in New York, Stay in a Neighborhood

So, you're heading to New York and you've made the difficult decision of what airport to fly into and you're starting to get excited about all the eating, shopping, and sightseeing to be had. The only detail left to figure out is deciding where to stay. I know you're tempted to stay in Midtown, it's just so convenient, you say. Don't get me wrong, Midtown makes sense for a lot of people. At least if you plan on spending your entire trip on Broadway, gawking in Times Square, taking a carriage ride through Central Park or on top of the Empire State Building. But, that's just not New York to me, that's the rest of the world's vision of New York.

Austin and I have talked about this before, we LOVE staying in neighborhoods. (See here or here.) Places where people want to live, eat, and exist. Our usual New York haunt is somewhere between the East Village and Gramercy. We have our favorite breakfast spot, streets to window shop on, and even a favorite late night deli. However, on my latest trip to NYC, I got to try out living in the West Village for a few days while attending the Travel Blog Exchange (or TBEX) and stayed in a sponsored apartment rental from HomeAway.

Apartments are my favorite option when traveling and having the comforts of home always makes for a more pleasant stay. I love having a full kitchen, a communal space to relax in and a closet; those are ALL wonderful things to have when traveling. Our rental from HomeAway was an absolutely lovely apartment, huge by New York standards with two bedrooms, TWO bathrooms and we even had a garden patio, where my roommates and I spent countless hours people watching, relaxing and swapping stories about the day over a glass of wine or a cheese plate from Murray's Cheese. This kind of luxury can come with a high price tag, our West Village digs ran around $600 per night. However, the West Village isn't exactly known for being cheap, and if that's out of your price range, you could easily find an equally vibrant neighborhood to fit any budget. Another point to be made is that said apartment slept up to six people and if you've got a crowd, it's not so far offbase from New York hotel price standards. (Although, pick a crowd you like, cause this apartment was New York City big, but not THAT big.) But, perhaps what I liked best about staying in the apartment was not the apartment and the amenities it offered, but, the ability to stay in an awesome neighborhood and not a Midtown hotel. Getting a taste of living in New York made me fall in love with New York all over again.

We could walk out the door and into an absolutely overwhelming array of food choices. Not just any old food choices, but fancy pants Italian-based GROM gelato, Murray's Cheese, Amy's Bread, and an Italian pastry shop (Pasticceria Rocco) where I got to overhear a great argument in Italian about how it was Cannavaro's fault that Italy had just exited the World Cup a few days earlier. And then there was that risotto place, where the smell of truffle oil intoxicated you and it was so tiny that they had to slide the table out for you, just so you could sit down. Oh, and that breakfast spot (Grey Dog's Coffee) that looked like it had been plucked out of any beach town in the world. With the sounds of Grateful Dead serenading us, we had some stellar New York bagels and lox and damn fine coffee. I felt like I had been airlifted to another world. One where hippies ruled the world.

An apartment in the city isn't without it's downsides. New York is noisy, and coupled with my jetlag, kept me awake until the sounds of the city finally died down around 4am. Not to mention that it was Pride weekend and the jubilant partiers kept me awake a second night with their screams and revelry. But that's New York and it's just as part of the experience as stepping into Central Park or riding the subway.

Long story short, I had a hard time leaving my little neighborhood that last morning and on my subway ride to the airport I started dreaming up my next New York trip; one where I would do nothing but hang out all day on my patio, nip down to the shop for a bite to eat, go for a leisurely long walk amongst brownstones, head to the square to people watch and eat a cone of gelato. I'd just soak it all in and pretend for a moment that I was a New Yorker. I wonder what 'hood I'll take on next.